Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

MEN AND BOOKS
that time forth, throughout all this monstrous period
— a very nightmare in the history of France — he is
no more than a stalking-horse for the ambitious
Gascon. Sometimes the smoke lifts, and you can
see him for the twinkling of an eye, a very pale
figure ; at one moment there is a rumour he will be
crowned king ; at another, w^hen the uproar has
subsided, he will be heard still crying out for justice;
and the next (1412), he is showing himself to the
applauding populace on the same horse with John of
Burgundy, But these are exceptional seasons, and
for the most part he merely rides at the Gascon's
bridle over devastated France. His very party go,
not by the name of Orleans, but by the name of
Armagnac. Paris is in the hands of the butchers :
the peasants have taken to the woods. Alliances
are made and broken as if in a country dance ; the
English called in, now by this one, now by the other.
Poor people sing in church, with white faces and
lamentable music : ^Domine Jesu, parce populo tuo,
dirige in viam pads principes.' And the end and
upshot of the whole affair for Charles of Orleans
is another peace with John the Fearless. France is
once more tranquil, with the tranquillity of ruin ; he
may ride home again to Blois, and look, with what
countenance he may, on those gems he had got
engraved in the early days of his resentment,
' Souvenez-vous de — ' Remember ! He has killed
Polonius, to be sure ; but the King is never a penny
the worse.
234